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No more long lines for food in 2nd game

By {screen_name}
Sunday, June 24, 2012

There were no long lines of people waiting at the concession stands.

A day after people waited an estimated 45 minutes to be served at the Grand Junction Rockies inaugural home opener, spectators were served in a timely fashion Sunday afternoon for the second home game in the team’s history.

For one, the crowd was smaller for the day game in the scorching heat, and the Rockies added two industrial, stainless steel tubs with cold bottles of water and soda to its concession sales. There are 12 total points of sale throughout the stadium.

“We added more points of sale today,” Grand Junction general manager Tim Ray said. “The people we had working for us (Saturday) night busted their tail to make sure everybody was taken care of.”

The majority of the problem with the wait was at the new concession stands underneath the new press box on the first-base side.

“The way the concession stand is built, it can not withhold a lot of traffic,” Ray said. “That’s also a major thoroughfare. That’s no excuse. We look at it like athletics. You go play, then you work on the things you need to work on and get better.

“I don’t want to take away from what was a magical night. There is a lot of people that worked extremely hard in the last two months to have this become a reality. I know I for one was very emotional last night. To see all the people that invested a lot of time, it was a very emotional night.”

Ray pointed to the beer stand underneath the right-field bleachers near the main gate as a non-problem area.

“I’ve noticed this beer stand at the main gate had less traffic than any place, and it was strictly a beer stand and water,” Ray said. “Because it was new, I don’t think the fans realized it was available.”

Ray said he did receive some complaints, but a vast majority of the fans he spoke to or heard from were positive about their experience at Grand Junction’s first professional baseball game.

“Even last night I would say 90 percent of our fans were very optimistic,” Ray said. “They knew we were trying to get people in and out.

“I received two negative emails and one negative phone message. The rest were extremely positive. Our people were thanked by a lot of the Grand Junction folks to get them in and out. There was a ton of people that congratulated us and thanked us.”

Ray said the Rockies don’t plan to have vendors walk through the stands serving food and beverages.

“I don’t think you’re going to see those type of crowds the rest of the season, so it’s really a non-issue,” Ray said. “It was (Saturday) night, no question.

“It’s a good problem to have. In Casper, we never had this problem because we didn’t have the fans.”